Friday,
January 6, 2023
9:30am
For 52 years, Jim Lorimer served as mayor, vice-mayor and city councilman of Worthington. Even more remarkable is that these are just a few of his many achievements. Our January exhibit is a tribute to Lorimer, who made a lasting impact on Worthington, Columbus and the sports world.
Since his passing at age 96 on November 24, 2022, the many tributes to Lorimer have reflected on the range and significance of his accomplishments.
He was born on October 7, 1926, in Bristol, PA, and served in the U.S. Navy during World War II. After graduating from Ursinus College and receiving a law degree from Penn State University, he served as an FBI agent. Lorimer and his family bought the house at 288 Selby Boulevard in Colonial Hills in 1958, and he began a 37-year career with Nationwide Insurance, serving as vice president in its office of government relations.
Lorimer had a lifelong interest in sports and physical fitness. At Nationwide, he founded the corporate fitness center, which was the first facility of its kind.
He was also an early champion for women’s and girls’ sports. In 1959, he attended a U.S. versus USSR athletics competition in Philadelphia. After watching the U.S. women's athletes get trounced by the USSR women, he returned to Ohio to form the Ohio Track Club girls' and women's division. The club excelled nationally, and members qualified for the Olympics in 1964. Lorimer served as chair of the Olympic Committee for Women's Sports from 1964-68.
A November 26, 2022, "Columbus Dispatch" article by Jim Weiker quotes Linda Logan, CEO and president of the Greater Columbus Sports Commission: "He had a real vision for women's and girls' sports. He gave women and girls in Ohio the opportunity to compete at an international level. Generations of female athletes can thank him for that."
His continued interest in sports promotion led him to run the World Weightlifting Championship, which had never been held in the U.S. Lorimer knew that to make it financially viable, a Mr. World contest needed to be part of the competition, and he sought out top bodybuilders to compete.
Arnold Schwarzenegger was one of those bodybuilders. In 1967, the same year Lorimer was elected mayor of Worthington, Schwarzenegger had won the first of his Mr. Universe titles. He used his clout in the bodybuilding world to convince many of his fellow competitors to come to Columbus for the 1970 World Weightlifting Championship, which was covered by ABC’s "Wide World of Sports." Schwarzenegger won the competition, and it was the beginning of a 52-year partnership between him and Lorimer.
A July 15, 1976, “Worthington News” article quotes Schwarzenegger on the 1970 event: "I’ve competed all over the world, but that was the best promotion I’ve ever seen. It was my dream to come back." (The same article also quotes Lorimer, a devoted weightlifter, as saying "What other mayor can bench-press 350 pounds?")
Schwarzenegger frequently visited Lorimer in Worthington in order to collaborate. The 1976 article describes how, during one such visit, the pair visited a neighbor, Worthington High School Principal Dave Cavanaugh, to swim in his pool. The next day, a neighbor of Cavanaugh’s approached him to say, "Was that really…that couldn’t have been…Arnold Schwarzenegger?"
On a handshake, Lorimer and Schwarzenegger agreed to collaborate on the Mr. Olympia contest, which was held in Columbus in 1976. Lorimer ran the competition and Schwarzenegger drummed up sponsors and athletes to participate. The contest was a success, and the partnership continued as Lorimer and Schwarzenegger put on events almost annually until, in 1989, the two co-founded the Arnold Classic. The competition offered the highest cash prize in the sport.
In the years following, more sports were added to the annual event, which is now called the Arnold Sports Festival. The largest multi-sport festival in the world, the Arnold hosts over 60 events, drawing 20,000 participants from over 80 countries.
At the same time that he was putting Columbus on the map in the world of bodybuilding, Lorimer was serving Worthington as its mayor from 1967-1979, and again in 1996-1997. He served as a city councilmember in the 1980s and as vice-mayor until his retirement in 2019. In 2021, the City named the fitness floor of the Worthington Community Center after him.
In addition to his athletic pursuits and promotion and community service, Lorimer found time to advance his profession. According to his obituary, Lorimer taught on behalf of the insurance industry’s Chartered Property and Casualty Underwriters degree, a leading professional certification, and co-authored the legal text in that national education program. He also served as adjunct professor at Capital University for its course in insurance law.
Lorimer was married for over 50 years to his high school sweetheart, Jean Whittaker Lorimer, who passed away in 2021. They are survived by their three children, six grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Through his lifelong passion and hard work, Jim Lorimer has had an indelible impact on Worthington, central Ohio and the sports world at large.
